Well, actually, a lot more than that. As it turns out, photographers are quite pricey. I feel so uneducated when it comes to all of this wedding stuff but everything is SO expensive! What is with that? I really think these vendors hear "wedding" and jack up the cost. But I digress...
We quickly realized that if we wanted good pictures, we were going to have to move some things around in our budget. A good photographer was a priority when we started planning the wedding. Our priorities were fourfold: 1) a good photographer; 2) an outdoor venue; 3) open bar; 4) easy access for OOT guests. That's it. Everything else was important, but not as important as these three things. So, with a little bit of budget adjusting, we had a few photographers in mind whose work we liked. To be honest, our venue package includes a photographer. His style just wasn't exactly what we were looking for. But, good news! Since we are not using their photographer, we do get a slight (and I do mean slight!) discount on our package. The photographer is worth... (drumroll please!)....
$400. Yes. That's two zeros. You can't get a photographer who has actually shot a wedding before for $400. But alas, we have no choice so we'll take what we can get. So we set out on a search for a photographer who was creative, did a mixture of candid/photojournalistic work and posed shots, and wasn't going to break the bank. After a thorough search of Weddingbee (I'm addicted to the bee!), the knot, atlantabridal, amongst many other sites, we narrowed our search down to three photographers. We were hoping to find someone who had shot at our location before and were somewhat successful in that endeavor. However, that wasn't a priority. We found 3 that we liked that were in our price range and I contacted them all to request more information and a larger selection of their work. A lot of photographers have a good selection of pictures on their website, but typically they are a selection of their favorite and best shots and don't represent the majority of their work. I wanted to see more of what a real couple would see after their wedding. What does the slideshow of images look like that I get to choose from for my album?
From these emails, we narrowed it down to two that we wanted to meet with. Both of the photographers had really good work that fit our criteria and were prompt to respond. Bonus! They also had good reviews, and I couldn't find a single bad review on either of them.
So, off to meet with our potential photographers. With my "The Book of Bride's Lists" in hand (a gift from my fabulous Maid of Honor whom I love to death!), I was completely prepared. The first photographer we met with was Shannon Wright. She was super sweet and we really liked her. She seemed really passionate about photography and clearly loves what she does. And it showed because her work was great. Just take a look at some of these pictures and you'll see why we fell in love. You can see many more on her blog and her website. But, seriously, she's fantastic! And her pricing is really competitive.
The second photographer we met with was Christopher Helm. He, also, was fantastic. We loved his work online and couldn't wait to see some of his albums. When we met him at Starbucks (he must have sensed the coffee-lover in me!), he was very down-to-earth and laid back. We looked through a couple of his albums and were wow'd by his work. He is so creative and clearly loves his work. His albums were amazing! We weren't planning on getting albums, but looking through his made us rethink that decision. We decided that if we went with Chris, we would probably want an album. He's that good. Oh, and just for a bonus: he's shot at our venue before. Just take a look at some of his work.
Which photographer would you choose? Incidentally, some of the pictures above, taken by Chris Helm, are from the venue we've chosen. Want to venture a guess at which ones they are? I know, I know, I haven't told you about our venue yet. It's coming, so stay tuned!
This is a tough one. My brain hurts.
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